Freebase  #
Tuesday, 27 Mar 2007 09:53AM
It keeps popping up in my web reading, Freebase.

What is it? Vague descriptions from bloggers who are using it seem to indicate it's a wiki database on everything. Wiki in terms of "anyone can edit". Or a database anyone can add to, and anyone can structure. "Database" because the data is structured so a computer can understand it, instead of just plain text.

I'm fascinated, if only to see how it can work and not turn into a horrible mess. I've signed up for an invite.

I've been reluctant to add anything (like The Sharp discography details) to Wikipedia for fear of it being labelled unimportant and trashed.

I wonder how Freebase will deal with this issue?

On the Freebase front page they indicate that all data in the database will be free to use by other websites. I like that. It's opening itself up to be a nice platform for the setlist databases and discographies I and many others been building.